+Source.+--_The History of the Rebellion rais'd against His Majesty
King George I. by the Friends of the Popish Pretender_, p. 365, by
the Rev. Mr. Peter Rae. Second edition. (London: 1746.)
... His Grace[56] having received positive orders from Court, to march
forthwith against the rebels, he resolved to surmount all difficulties,
and to march as soon as the artillery, and some of the Dutch forces at
Edinburgh, and the regiments of Newton and Stanhope, who were quartered
at Glasgow, could come up to join him; which they did, two or three days
after.... The news of these preparations and march were not grateful to
His Majesty at Scone, spoiling the ceremony of his coronation, and
meeting of his Parliament: Instead of which fine things, the only matter
now under consideration was, how to provide for their own safety; and
the grand question debated was, whether to maintain the place, and fight
the Duke of Argyle, or retreat.... The Pretender, finding that time was
not to be lost, retired that evening from Scone to Perth, where having
supped at Provost Hay's, he rested some hours; and next morning[57]
about ten o'clock, the rebels abandoned Perth, marching over the Tay
upon the ice, and, leaving their cannon behind them, took their rout
towards Dundee. About noon the Pretender himself, with the Earl of Mar,
followed his flying adherents with tears in his eyes, complaining that
instead of bringing him to a Crown, they had brought him to his
grave....
The rebels having retired from Dundee to Montrose, his Grace, on the
3rd,[58] sent a detachment towards Aberbrothick[59] within eight miles
of that place; and on the fourth, in the morning, ordered Major General
Sabine, with 3 battalions, 500 detached foot, and 50 dragoons, to march
to Aberbrothick. The same day his Grace detached Colonel Clayton with
300 foot and 50 dragoons, to march by the way of Brechin; giving orders
to the one as well as the other to summon the country people to remove
the snow on the roads, which, being then very deep, made their march
very heavy and tedious. His Grace having divided the rest of his army
into two bodies, for marching with the greater expedition; and the rebel
army having marched in two columns, on the 5th, in the morning, General
Cadogan with the infantry marched towards Aberbrothick, and at the same
time the Duke himself, with all the cavalry, proceeded by the Upper Road
towards Brechin; the whole army being to join the next day at
Stonehive,[60] intending on Tuesday hereafter to be at Aberdeen, to
which place they supposed the Pretender was gone.
But by this time the Pretender was out of their reach; for having
received advice at Montrose, on the 4th of February, about four in the
afternoon, that part of the King's army was advancing towards
Aberbrothick, he ordered the clans who remained with him to be ready to
march, about eight at night, towards Aberdeen, where he assured them a
considerable force would soon come to them from France. At the hour
appointed for their march, the Pretender ordered his horses to be
brought before the door of the house in which he lodged, and the guard
which usually attended him to mount, as if he designed to go on with the
clans to Aberdeen; but at the same time he slipped privately out on
foot, accompanied only by one of his domesticks, went to the Earl of
Mar's lodgings, and from thence, by a byway to the water-side, where a
boat waited and carried him and the Earl of Mar on board a French ship
of 90 tuns, called the _Maria Teresa_ of St. Malo. About a quarter of an
hour after, two other boats carried the Earl of Melford and the Lord
Drummond, with Lieutenant-General Sheldon and ten other gentlemen on
board the same ship, and then they hoisted sail and put to sea; and
notwithstanding of his Majesty's ships that were cruising on that coast,
got safely off, and in seven days landed at Waldam, near Graveling,[61]
between Dunkirk and Calais. The Earls Marischal, Southesk, the Lord
Tinmouth, General Gordon, with many other gentlemen and officers of
distinction, were left behind to shift for themselves, who kept with the
army, and continued their march towards Aberdeen, the foot marching on
before with General Gordon, and the Earl Marischal, with about 1000
horse, keeping the rear to prevent surprise....
The same day the King's forces advanced to Montrose, the remains of the
rebel army arrived at Aberdeen, where General Gordon showed them a
letter from the Pretender, in which he acquainted his friends that the
disappointments he had met with, especially from abroad, had obliged him
to leave that country; that he thanked them for their services, and
desired them to advise with General Gordon, and consult their own
security either by keeping in a body or separating, and encouraging them
to expect to hear farther from him in a very short time.... And we are
told, that upon reading of the letter, many of the people threw down
their arms, crying out they were basely betrayed, they were all undone,
they were left without king or general. On the seventh, in the morning,
the van of the rebels marched from Aberdeen, as did their rear about two
in the afternoon, and their main body lay at Old Meldrum that night; but
about 200 of their horse, amongst whom were many of their chiefs, with
Irish and other officers who came lately from France, went toward
Peterhead in order to ship themselves off in ships which they knew were
waiting for them there....
Their main body marched straight west, through Strath-Spey and
Strath-Don to the hills of Badenoch, where they separated: The foot
dispersed into the mountains on this side of Lochy, and the horse went
Lochquhaher, agreeing, however, to meet again upon notice from the
Pretender. And here being advised that two French frigates were come for
their relief, and would lay in Pentland Firth till they should hear from
them, the Lord Duffus, Sir George Sinclair, General Eckline and others,
about 160 gentlemen in all, well mounted on horseback, made a sally from
the hills, and crossing the shire of Murray,[62] came to the seaside
near Burgh, where they got several large barks which carried them to the
Orkneys, Arskerry,[63] and other of the islands, from whence most of
them found means to get into the frigates which carried them safe to
France. Other ships coming afterwards carried the rest to Gottenburg, in
the Swedish dominions, where some of them took on in that king's
service.... There were yet with the rebels in Scotland many of their
chiefs, as the Marquis of Tullibardine, the Earls Marischal, Southesk,
Linlithgow, and Seaforth, who having broke his submission, joined them
again in their flight to the northward, the Lord Tinmouth, Sir Donald
M'Donald, and several others of the heads of the clans, who sheltered
themselves for some time in the mountains from his Majesty's troops who
pursued them through the north; and from thence some made their escape
to the Isle of Sky, the Lewis, and other of the north-western islands
till ships came for their relief to carry them abroad; and some of them
afterwards submitted to the Government, as we shall hear below....
The Duke of Argyle having thus gloriously finished the most laborious
and hard campaign that ever was known, he left the command of his
Majesty's troops to Lieutenant-General Cadogan and returned to
Edinbourgh the 27th of February, and in a day or two after set out for
London, where he arrived on the 6th of March.